Students will pay more for meals at Northwest College next year — but less than the 9.5 percent increase college administrators say is needed.

Lisa Watson, NWC vice president for administrative services, told the NWC Board of Trustees that a decline in enrollment, combined with increased food services costs, has resulted in a small profit for some meal plans and a loss for others.

Watson provided a list of proposed increases for the college’s meal plans, which vary between 1.5 percent and 8.9 percent. They were the result of negotiations with Chartwells, the college’s food-service provider, Watson said.

Watson and NWC President Stefani Hicswa both expressed frustration with the rates, but said negotiations with Chartwells were difficult.

“Their model is vague and convoluted,” Watson said.

Next year will be the third year of the college’s five-year contract with Chartwells.

In a handout she prepared for the board, Watson said an enrollment decline resulted in 100 fewer meal plans being purchased per semester.

“The original contract estimated an average of 586 plans per semester while the current average is 496,” she wrote. “With current enrollment level, an increase of 9.5 percent would have to (be) implemented across all plans to provide the original guaranteed commission...”

Hicswa said she is frustrated that students pay between $4.65 per meal (for 19 meals per week) and $11.30 per meal (for six meals per week) but at the door, people pay $5.90 for breakfast, $7 for lunch and $8 for dinner.

That doesn’t provide any incentive to buy a plan for fewer meals, she said.

“We want to have a conversation with Chartwells,” Watson said. “We’re allowing other meal plans to cover fixed costs.”

The NWC board unanimously approved the following meal plan costs for the 2016-17 school year:

• 19 meals in the cafeteria per week plus $200 in “Flex bucks” (for use in the Seventh Grille Nation or Einstein’s Bagels, also located in the NWC DeWitt Student Center) for $1,546 per semester, or $4.65 per meal. That is an increase of 5.9 percent.

• 15 meals per week plus $100 Flex bucks for $1,510 or $5.99 per meal, up 3.5 percent.

• 10 meals per week plus $50 Flex bucks for $1,250 or $7.53 per meal, up 9.3 percent.

• 6 meals per week plus $100 Flex bucks for $1,247 or or $11.30 per meal, up 8.9 percent.

• 5 meals per week plus $50 Flex bucks for $898 or $10.32 per meal, up 1.5 percent.

After leaving housing rates the same for the current year, the Northwest College Board of Trustees voted unanimously Feb. 8 to increase residence hall rates by 6 percent for the 2016-17 school year.

But that will make up only part of the projected $370,800 decrease in housing revenues that Lisa Watson, vice president for administrative services, said she estimates the college will experience by the end of fiscal year 2016, which ends on June 30.

Watson told the board during its Feb. 8 meeting that it would take a 17 percent increase to break even — a price hike neither administrators nor board members were interested in pursuing all at once.

According to Watson, this year’s shortfall is due to inflation, a decline in enrollment, an increase in the number of part-time nontraditional students and a rise in the number of students who live off campus.

Last year’s 4-3 vote to keep housing rates the same was prompted by Sean Fox, former vice president of student services.

“I feel very confident that, without a rate increase, we can do (maintenance) projects as well as put in a little bit more into the facility reserve account,” Fox said at the February 2015 meeting of the NWC Board of Trustees.

At that meeting, trustees asked NWC President Stefani Hicswa how she felt about keeping housing rates the same.

“I am a bit concerned about no increase in housing,” she said a year ago. “The Simpson Hall bond payment needs to come out of that revenue ... plus the depreciation fund.”

Trustee Nada Larsen added, “I would be even more concerned than Stefani seems to be. ... I do want to keep it as reasonable as possible for the students, but we need to put some money into that fund.”

Fox predicted other colleges would raise their housing rates.

“We will be better if we don’t go up,” he said last year.

The result was a 4-3 vote last year in favor of keeping the rate the same.

Fox made his housing recommendation in the absence of a vice president of administrative services and a finance director, with both positions vacant at that time.

Watson came on board part time a few weeks later, converting to full time later in spring 2015. A new finance director, Brad Bowen, started at NWC on Monday. Bowen is a certified public accountant. He earned master’s and bachelor’s degrees in accounting from the University of Wyoming.

Ultimately, Hicswa’s and Larsen’s worries last year were the same concerns that led the board to vote unanimously this month for a 6 percent housing rate increase.

Watson said the Simpson Hall annual bond payment is $317,000. While that money is available in an auxiliary reserve account, “We don’t want to use it for bond payments unless it is necessary,” Watson said.

Fox’s prediction about other colleges’ room rates going higher proved to be correct.

Watson provided a graph comparing the lowest housing rates at each college this year and it showed Northwest’s housing cost is lower than housing at most other colleges in Wyoming.

Rental rates for student apartments in Trapper Village and Trapper Village West are comparable to other property rentals in town, she said. 

But that hasn’t prevented a decline in the number of NWC students who live on campus.

Hicswa said sophomores can live off campus if they want to, “so we’re working to make (residence halls and apartments) more attractive.”

“We have a lot of maintenance work that needs to be done,” Watson said. She said she is working on a five-year plan for “refreshing” residence halls.

“I’m trying to gather some data and make some good decisions,” she said. “I’m trying to allow an opportunity for some better planning. Do we close a hall? Do we want to close a hall? ... If we pick up 50 (additional) students, we might be fine.”